This group is studying the problem of how organisms sense a change in their environment and transduce the environmental signal into a change in gene expression and morphology. The group has continued their characterization of the OxyR-regulated response to hydrogen peroxide and has begun to elucidate the nature of the oxidation-reduction active center in the OxyR protein and the nature of OxyR-DNA recognition. A small non-coding RNA induced by treatment with hydrogen peroxide was also found t act as a novel regulator to both induce and repress expression of genes after oxidative stress. The group initiated studies of the light regulation in Arabidopsis by characterizing existing tt mutants defective in anthocyanin pigment production in response to light and other types of stress.